Target Audience Profile



This is a poster for my Thriller 'Thief'

In this poster I have included a screen shot from my thriller ‘Thief’ to intrigue the audience, and show them what to expect from this film. My crime thriller is aimed at the target audience of 16-25 year olds because it is this age group in particular that may be influenced, or have been affected by crime. For example, identity theft and mugging is a huge issue at present, making this film ‘mood of moment’. Mugging is especially common with the target audience age group because you often hear about gang culture in the media and the amount of teens that are committing major offences, such as mugging and knife crime. Even though ‘Thief’ is an independent film, it is influenced by many independent and mainstream films including the crime thriller ‘Snatch’ (2000, directed by Guy Richie). It relates to ‘Thief’ because they are both about committing a robbery and what extent people will go to for money. It is also influenced by ‘Kidulthood’ (2006, directed by Noel Clarke) which is an independent film about youths and gang crime. 

This is a snapshot of the victim Eve White drawing out some money at the cashpoint whilst the ‘Thief’ Will Block watches her. It creates a feeling of suspense as the audience wonders why this teenage boy is stalking her. The fact that this boy is only 17 years old, would be particularly disturbing for the target audience because it would make them wonder if they themselves could commit this type of crime and target innocent strangers. I have used rundown, gritty locations that will appeal to my target audience. These are usual city locations such as, a cashpoint down an alleyway and a subway. The subway is particularly grungy which the target audience could identify with, as they themselves might have walked down a dimly lit subway at night alone and could relate to the panicky feeling of being alone in a rundown area. I have displayed all the awards the film has won on the poster making it more appealing because it has been recommended by top film critics. Films that have won awards usually display them in their posters to entice the audience and gain their attention. For example, ‘This is England’ (2006, directed by Shane Meadows) interested me because it features their awards on the poster demostrating it is a good film, even though the actors are unknown. It involves ‘skinheads’ who are a type of group or gang that were popular in the 1980s and having the title ‘This IS England’ shows that not a lot has changed through time. There are still racist gangs that are extremely violent and numb to the consequences. This relates to ‘Thief’ because it illustrates how ‘normal’ teens can easily get mixed up in something illegal becoming selfish and corrupt like 12 year old ‘Shaun’ from ‘This is England’.